Reflector oven



L. H. BROWN REFLECTOR OVEN Dec. 11, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 22, 1961 Z uc/mv /7. BROWN %w*w- Arv-qmverx Dec. 11, 1962 L. H. BROWN 3,067,737

REFLECTOR OVEN Filed May 22, 1961. 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR. L UC/AN l1. 5R0 WN ATTORNY6 United States Patent 3,067,737 REFLECTOR OVEN Lucian H. Brown, Rte. 5, Box 431, Excelsior, lviinn. Filed May 22, 1961, Ser. No. 111,816 1%) Claims. (Cl. Ed -274) This invention is a reflector oven of the type used to bake things by means of an open fire such as a campfire or fireplace. It is novel in being made from elongated elements which are inserted into sockets formed in a central portion to create a framework over which the flexible reflecting material is placed to create the oven. The units may all be disassembled and placed side-by-side into a compact bundle for storage or transportation. The structure is further novel in that the parts thereof when disassembled and made into a bundle for either storage or transportation are almost invulnerable to crushing or bending in the course of normal handling. Yet another point of novelty in the structure resides in the use of a crinkled, or wrinkled reflective surface providing for diffuse reflection which tends to promote even baking.

The reflector oven of this invention uses a reflecting surface that is disposable and therefore may be replaced with a shiny new reflecting surface at'low eXpense.

Presently available commercial reflector ovens when used for camping purposes are extremely short lived. There are two facts which lead to this result. The usual reflector oven is made out of thin, lightweight sheet metal such as sheet aluminum in order to give it the attribute of light weight. Hence, it is also easily bent. Any equipinent on a camping trip is almost invariably given rough treatment. This combination is almost certain to be fatal within a very short period of time to most reflector ovens commercially available.- As most reflector ovens are made of thin sheets of metal which are folded flat for transporting, they very often are damaged by being stored in dufllebag's, haversacks and other non-rigid type of camping storage units. Accidentally sitting or standing on a bag containing one of these ovens almost invariably damages it beyond use. Furthermore, the reflecting surfaces of these ovens usually become dirty very rapidly. It is very difficult to clean these surfaces without marring them to the point that their reflective properties are seriously damaged. As a result, reflector ovens are rather unsatisfactory in that they are either thus easily damaged or else so heavy and rugged as to be something of a problem to transport from place to place. 7

Even the more rugged units, which are not as easily damaged in transportation, have the" problem of getting dirty and requiring some kind of cleaning process to make them cook well again. Furthermore, being made from sheet metal, the units that are rugged enough to stand up at all generally retain their flat sheet surfaces. This type of a surface tends to reflect heat in rigid patterns and thereby causes points of heat concentration to develop- In short, previously known reflector ovens have left a good deal to be desired.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a novel reflector oven.

It is another object of this invention to provide a reflector oven that is extremely portable.

Yet another object of this invention is to make a collapsible reflector oven that requires little or no' skill or knowledge to assemble and disassemble the unit.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a reflector oven comprising a framework across which flexible reflective material may be stretched to complete the oven.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a reflector oven consisting of a central or .core element having sockets therein into'which the other members of 3,667,737 Patented Dec. 11, 1962 ice the oven may be inserted, thereby creating the major frame portions including the food supporting rack.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a reflector oven consisting of a series of elongated members some of which may be inserted into sockets of others to create the reflector oven frame.

It is yet another object of this invention to have the reflector oven comprised of elongated members that may be assembled into a frame or disassembled and laid sideby-side to create a bundle that resists crushing and bending of individual members in the bundle. 1

It is another object of this invention to provide a reflector oven which uses a creaseable, wrinkleable, flexible material as the reflecting surface.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a reflector oven that can be adjustedto uneven ground surfaces.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a collapsible reflector oven in which the reflecting surface above the object being baked will reflect heat rays eX- tending over a wide range of angles from a fire placed in front of it.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a collapsible reflector oven in which the framework that supports the flexible reflective material is held in its assembled condition by the tension of the flexible reflective material being supported by the framework.

Other and further objects of the invention are those inherent and apparent in the apparatus as described, pictured and claimed.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, this invention then comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various Ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

The invention will be described With reference to the drawings in which corresponding numerals refer to the same parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the reflector oven of this invention positioned adjacent a campfire and in use baking; broken lines illustrate hidden parts;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical section of the invention drawn to a slightly larger scale than that used in FIGURE 1 and with broken lines illustrating hidden parts;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of one of the reflective material supporting elements and cross wire therefor, with a portion of the supporting member broken away to illustrate construction more fully; broken lines illustrate hidden parts;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary, sectional View taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 2, drawn as though that figure were an: end elevation and a scale between those of FIGURES 2 and 3;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the entire oven disassembled and rolled up for purposes of transportation or storage; it is drawn to the same scale as FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a side elevation of another preferred practical embodiment of the invention employing modifications not shown in the structure illustrated in FIG- URES 1-5; the scale used is slightly larger than that employed in FIGURE 2 and portions of the device are broken away to illustrate its construction more completely; and

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary, front elevation of the right side of the device illustrated in FIGURE 6 and drawn to the same scale; broken lines illustrate hidden parts.

7 Referring to FIGURES 1-5 of the drawings, central frame element 10 is provided with a plurality of sockets which receive the upper reflective material supporting elements 11 and 11A as well as the lower reflective material supporting elements 12 and 12A.

Similar sockets are provided in central member to receive the legs 14 and 14A. In FIGURE 2, it can be seen that the legs 14A and supports 11A are arranged at right angles to support 12A. In FIGURE 4 is shown the method of having these legs and supports arranged at right angles with respect to each other without having the various sockets thereof interfere with each other by having the sockets slightly off-set axially with respect to each other.

The oven reflective material supports 11 and 12 and their paired support members 11A and 12A are open at their ends which is readily accomplished by making these units from tubing. Cross wires 15 and 16 are bent at their ends to provide bosses that extend down inside the open ends as shown clearly in FIGURE 3. In that figure, a fragment of wire 15 is illustrated as having the lug 17 thereof extending down inside the hollow end of reflective material support member 11.

A piece of flexible easily wrinkled and highly reflective material such as aluminum foil 18 is then extended around the central frame member 10 and with its ends 19 and 20 extending beyond the wires 15 and 16 and bent over to hold the foil member on the frame. Wires 15 and 16 are preferably of small diameter so that the foil 18 may be creased sharply around them. Otherwise the foil may not remain secure on the frame.

The grill or support for the material being baked is formed from a plurality of rods 21 which in turn are fitted into sockets formed in the central base member 10. These sockets are arranged in a row regularly spaced and hold the rods 21 extending in a plane that bisects the angle formed by the reflective material 18 when it is on the reflective material supporting members. With the oven assembled and placed on a ground surface 22 adjacent to a fire 24, any food matter which is desired to be baked such as biscuits 25, for example, may be placed on the rack rods 21 and thereby supported at the point of heat concentration of the reflective surfaces of reflective material 18.

When it is desired to store or transport the reflector oven, all of the elongated members that comprise the supporting rods and the frame supports may be disassembled from central frame member 10. Wires 15 and 16 of course are removed from their respective positions and the entire group of elongated elements may now be placed in a bundle and the reflective material 18 wrapped around them to hold them in a bundle as shown in FIGURE 5.

In the form of the device shown in FIGURES 1-5, each of the various support members 1114A are identical 'in size and length. For this reason, they may be inter changeably positioned in the various sockets provided therefor. Similarly the rods 21 are all identical in size and length so that any one may be used in any of the various positions provided therefor. Wires 15 and 16 must be used in the positions shown in FIGURE 1 as the legs 12 and 12A are slightly closer together than are the legs 11-11A. Little or no special knowledge is required to discern this fact, however, and anyone with normal intelligence can reassemble the unit with little or no difficulty after once having seen it assembled.

Central frame member 10 is composed of any suitable substance but preferably one that provides sufficient crushing strength, such as wood or the like, as to make the bundled frame highly resistant to damage as a result of rough treatment while it is being transported or stored. Wood is also preferred for simplicity of fabrication, low cost, and its relatively light weight. The use of wood for the element 10 has a further advantage in that it is a poor heat conductor. When the ends thereof are made to extend some little distance beyond the reflecting portions of the oven, these end portions may be grasped to move the oven back away from or closer to the fire. This is illustrated in FIGURE 1 where the end portions 26 of central frame member 10 may be seen protruding out beyond reflective material 18 some little distance.

There is one disadvantage in making the element 10 from wood which is that it tends to swell in a damp atmosphere. For this reason, the sockets into which all the members extend must be relatively loose when the wood is dry so that it will still remain possible to insert the various parts into the sockets of the element 10 when it is expanded as a result of taking on moisture from the air. For this reason, the reflective surface supporting members 11--12A are securely held in the member 10 only by reason of the reflective material or foil member 18 being extended tautly between the wires 15 and 16.

Referring now to the form of the structure shown in FIGURES 6 and 7, there is provided a central frame element 30 that is very similar to the frame element 10 in the earlier form of the device. Sockets are provided at the ends of the element 30 to receive the reflective material supporting members 31, 31A, 32 and 32A. The latter, as is shown clearly in FIGURE 6, are bent downward at their upper ends in order to provide a different angle for the uppermost portion of the reflective material 34- which is supported by the frame. Supports 31-32A, wires 35, 35A and 36, the latter being the extra wire at the bend in the members 32 and 32A, form the support for foil 34. Again the frame is held assembled by the foil 34. Wires 35 and 35A may be identical, for reasons that will appear hereafter, even though the sockets into which the members 32 and 32A are off-set axially in the member 30 with relation to the sockets that receive the members 31 and 31A as shown in FIGURE 7.

As is also shown clearly in FIGURE 7, the reflective material 34 is spaced more widely from support 32 at its top than at its socket base and the reverse is true for the support member 31. For this reason, the ends of the two supports are in a common vertical plane and the same is true of the two supports at the opposite end of the device. This is possible for two reasons. In the first place, as is pointed out above with respect to the earlier form of the device, the sockets and element 30 must be somewhat loose in order to assure that all of the members may be inserted therein even when the wood has become swollen as the result of absorbing moisture. Furthermore, the elements 32 and 32A may have their ends moved somewhat closer together by simply pivoting them slightly in the sockets because they are bent as shown in FIGURE 6. For this reason, the two foil supporting wires 35 and 35A may be of identical lengths and still reach between the two supports in each case. Wire 36 is of the same general diameter and length as wires 35 and 35A before being bent but is bent only on one end so that it may be inserted through appropriate holes provided at the bend in the supports 32 and 32A to support the foil as shown in FIGURE 6.

Instead of having the leg members extend straight into the central frame member 30 in a socket such as that pro-- vided for the elements 31 and 32, the legs 37 are provided with bosses formed by bending the ends thereof and these are engaged in appropriate sockets in the ends of the member 30. Since the legs 37 are formed from round stock, the bosses 38 will pivot in the sockets of the member 30- and individually since each leg is separately pivoted. In this manner the height of the element 30 may be increased or decreased with respect to wire 35 in order to accommodate the device to uneven ground.

Rods 39 are equivalent to the rods 21 in the deviceshown in FIGURES l-5. They support any item to be baked, such as the dough 40, in any suitable pan 41. As many doughs that it might be desired to bake in such an oven are rather runny, it is essential that the rods 39 be level in order to hold the dough flat until it is congealed by baking. By manipulating legs 37, rods 39 can almost always be brought into a level position in spite of ex tremely uneven conditions of ground 42. Thus, problems that would normally make it difficult or impossible to level rods 39 are overcome.

In FIGURE 6, it will be seen that the reflecting element 34, while being bent around the wire 35 as shown in FIGURES 15 with respect to wire 16, is bent reversely around wire 35 as at 44. The advantage in so bending the reflective material lies in the fact that any excess material that may be torn off a roll of foil will be supported on the top of the reflective material 34 and will not droop down in front of the upper reflective surface.

The overhanging hood portion of the form of the device shown in FIGURES 6 and 7 makes it possible to take advantage of heat emanating from a fire of relatively small size. In the form of the device shown in FIG- URE 2, the fire must extend to a point nearly as high as the rods 21 in order not to be shielded from the upper reflective surface by a pan such as that shown at 41 in FIGURE 6. With the form of the device shown at FIGURES 6 and 7, however, even a low fire will direct rays of heat in such a manner as to catch the upper portion of the reflective surface supported by the arms 32-32A and direct the heat rays onto the upper surface of dough 40.

The reflective material 34 is preferably rolled around the central frame element 30 in order to wrinkle or crinkle the surface of the foil. When the surface of the foil is crinkled, it has been discovered that the heat is much more evenly diffused than if it is left in a nearly smooth form. By diffusing the heat evenly, even baking occurs. This is an advantage that cannot be gained when the reflective surfaces are made from metal sheet that is thick enough not to wrinkle easily. Furthermore, the foil is inexpensive enough so that it may be discarded when it becomes so dirty, as from fire, smoke, as to be a poor reflective surface.

With respect to both forms of the invention, the central frame element being made of wood provides a strong core-like arrangement for the bundled units to prevent them from becoming bent or out of shape in the event of being roughly handled. In the course of a camping trip, this type of a device is often stored in a non-rigid container, such as a dufflebag, haversack or the like. Oftentimes, these storage units are stepped on or sat upon in the course of use. Such stepping on or sittIng on the usual reflector oven made of planar sheets of aluminum usually bends or distorts them so badly that it is difficult or impossible to assemble them into a usable unit. The oven of this invention clearly obviates this problem.

It is apparent that many modifications and variations of this invention as hereinbefore set forth may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. The specific embodiments described are given by way of example only and the invention is limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A reflector oven comprising: an elongated central frame member having sockets therein, a plurality of elongated elements removably engaged in the scckets of said elongated central frame member and extending radially therefrom in widely diverging pairs of parallel elements, cross wires removably secured respectively to the ends of each of two pairs of said elongated members, a flexible reflective material stretched around said cross wires and said elongated central frame member to form widely diverging reflective surfaces, and a plurality of rods removably engaged in a longitudinal row of sockets in said central elongated frame member between said reflective surfaces for supporting food to be baked.

2. The reflector oven of claim 1 in which said flexible reflective material holds its supporting members engaged with said elongated central frame member.

3. The reflector oven of claim 1 in which at least portions of said elongated central frame member extend beyond said flexible reflective material at both ends of said elongated central frame member and are made of material that conducts heat poorly.

4. The reflector oven of claim 1 in which said elongated central frame member is substantially larger in diameter than any of said plurality of elongated elements and is of a material that resists bending and crushing.

5. The reflector oven of claim 1 in which said elongated central frame member is wood and substantially thicker than any other element in the frame structure.

6. A reflector oven comprising: an elongated central frame member having sockets therein, a plurality of elongated elements some of which are removably engageable in the sockets of said elongated central frame member and with each other selectively to form a free standing frame, a sheet of reflective material removably supported by said frame and providing widely diverging reflective surfaces, and other of said elongated elements removably engageable in a longitudinal row of sockets in said central elongated frame member forming a rack for supporting material between said widely diverging reflective surfaces; all of said elongated members being disengageable from said central elongated frame member and each other whereby they may be placed beside each other and said central elongated frame member and form a single elongated bundle that resists bending and crushing.

7. The reflector oven of claim 6 in which said central elongated frame member is wood.

8. The reflector oven of claim 7 in which said central elongated frame member is longer than the width of said reflective material.

9. A reflector oven comprising: an elongated central frame member composed of a material that is a poor heat conductor, a series of three sockets arranged near one end of said elongated central frame member extending into said elongated member, the axes of two of said sockets extending radially at right angles with respect to each other and the axis of the third extending radially opposite the one of said two sockets, all of said sockets being off-set axially with respect to each other, a correspondingly arranged set of three sockets near the other end of said elongated central frame member, a longitudinal row of sockets having radially extending axes and arranged between said two series of sockets; said row of sockets having axes lying in a plane arranged at 45 with respect to the axes of said sockets that extend at right angles to each other, a plurality of elongated members removably engaged in the sockets near the ends of said elongated frame member, said elongated members being tubes, a plurality of rods removably engaged in said row of sockets, two cross wires each having bent ends removably engaged in the free ends of corresponding elongated member of each pair, and a sheet of flexible reflective material having one end bent around one of said cross wires, extending around said elongated central frame member and to the other of said cross wires and bent around it to secure the other end of said sheet of flexible reflective material to said other cross wire.

10. The reflector oven of claim 9 in which the upper two of said elongated members receiving a cross wire have upper portions which are identically forwardly bent intermediate their ends, another cross wire is supported at said bends, and said sheet of flexible reflective material engages all of said cross wires, whereby the cuer top of said sheet of reflective material extends at a more acute angle relative to said rods than does the balance of said sheet of flexible reflective material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

